Lance armstrong before and after steroids

As to how Armstrong might mount a credible defense, his legal team has previously argued that regardless of whether Armstrong committed “fraudulent inducement,” his popularity and successes resulted in a net benefit for taxpayers, even as the negative press surrounding Armstrong mounted. “As the Court’s opinion reveals, there is no actual evidence of any quantifiable financial harm to the USPS. So the government may now proceed to a trial that, as a practical matter, it cannot win,” Landis’ lead attorney, Elliot R. Peters, said according to the Washington Post .

In a strange turn of events, in January 2013, during a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career, beginning in the mid-1990s. During his interview with Winfrey, Armstrong stated that he took the hormones cortisone, testosterone and erythropoietin (also known as EPO), and conducted blood transfusions to boost his oxygen levels. "I am deeply flawed ... and I'm paying the price for it, and I think that's OK. I deserve this," Lance stated during the interview, adding that he took illegal drugs as a professional athlete due to a "ruthless desire to win ... the level that it went to, for whatever reason, is a flaw."